Xinjiang county awards 50,000 yuan for tip-offs

Tip-offs about potential hazards to society, including separatist and illegal religious activities, could be rewarded with over 50,000 yuan ($8,015) in Shaya county, Aksu prefecture in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a local official confirmed with the Global Times on Wednesday.

Whistle-blowers can report to the public security department or the county-level commission of political and legal affairs about suspect and illegal activities in order to prevent and combat crimes and maintain social stability, according to a notice posted on the county government's website earlier this month. Verified intelligence would be rewarded, the statement added.

"The notice on the website is a more detailed regulation based on a previous notice from public security authorities," an official from the local commission of legal and political affairs told the Global Times on condition of anonymity.

Similar intelligence reward notices could also be seen in last year's press releases on the official website of Habahe county of Altay prefecture and a district of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. No details of those notices have been revealed by the authorities.

Based on the notice in Shaya, residents can report any illegal actions. Meanwhile, the notice also mentioned intelligence such as foreigners entering the county and conflicts between Uyghur and Han residents.

The notice also specified rewards, whose value ranges from 50 yuan to over 50,000 yuan, for a wide range of intelligence from those wearing beards to spreading information to topple the authorities as well as conducting illegal religious activities.

Particularly, a reward from 5,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan could be given to whistle-blowers of activities including separatism preaching and training for terror attacks. The reward will also go to those who report intelligence of reactionary organizations overseas or activities to provoke conflicts between religious sects.

"This is common practice in the international community. It is therefore natural for Xinjiang to release such a notice and I believe it will play an effective role in combating terrorism as well as maintaining social stability," Turgunjan Tursun, a research fellow at the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

Xinjiang has seen riots in recent years. Aksu police in January shot dead six attackers, while another six died in an explosion they set off when they were surrounded by police.